Brian Weiss

Weiss graduated from Columbia University in 1966, and later graduated from the Yale University School of Medicine in 1970, completing an internship in internal medicine at the New York University Medical Center, then returning to Yale for a two-year residency in psychiatry. He went on to become Head of Psychiatry, Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami.

According to Weiss, in 1980, one of his patients, "Catherine", began discussing past-life experiences under hypnosis. Weiss did not believe in reincarnation at the time, but after confirming elements of Catherine's stories through public records, came to be convinced of the survival of an element of the human personality after death. Dr. Weiss was astonished and skeptical when Catherine began recalling past-life traumas that seemed to hold the key to her recurring nightmares and anxiety attacks. His skepticism was eroded, however, when she began to channel messages from her spirit guide/Master who made remarkable revelations about Dr. Weiss’s family and his dead son. Weiss claims he has regressed more than 4,000 patients since 1980.

Weiss advocates hypnotic regression as therapy, claiming that many phobias and ailments are rooted in past-life experiences whose acknowledgement by the patient can have a curative effect. Weiss also writes about messages received from the "Masters", or "super-evolved, nonphysical souls", he claims to have communicated with through his subjects. Weiss holds workshops and seminars across the United States that explain and teach self-regression meditation techniques.

Weiss lives with his wife Carole in Miami, Florida, where he has written and conducted public seminars and workshops on the subject of reincarnation.

Daughter Amy E. Weiss is the co-author of his book Miracles Happen: The Transformational Healing Power of Past-Life Memories (2012).